WP,pg1: Immigrant Supporters To Counter Bush Speech: New Alliance

[DeepModem Mom]

Immigrant Supporters To Counter Bush Speech
New Alliance Ready To Make Itself Heard
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 15, 2006; Page A01

As President Bush prepares to address the nation tonight about immigration, a newly formed network of groups that organized demonstrations for illegal immigrants is conference calling, brainstorming and consolidating its forces so that it can respond to the government with a unified voice.

The We Are America Alliance of 41 immigrant resource groups, unions, churches, day laborers and Spanish-language disc jockeys opposes House legislation that would criminalize illegal immigrants, but it will lobby Congress and compromise to realize its goal of obtaining legal residency for many of the 11 million people who live in the shadows.

But like the president, whose proposal for a guest-worker program is opposed by many in his own party, the alliance does not speak for all. It is being criticized by a small but influential faction of Latino activists in Los Angeles who say the alliance's compromise strategy could slow the momentum created by the protests.

Bush's speech and the immigrant community's planned response on Spanish-language radio will kick off a week of debate and activity over immigration. The Senate is scheduled to take up the immigration issue today, and its leaders hope to emerge with a bill by Memorial Day. Proposed Senate legislation would allow some illegal immigrants to become legal residents. Once a bill passes, senators would begin negotiations with the House, where proposals that would grant citizenship to anyone who entered the country without proper documentation are deeply opposed by Republicans and some Democrats.

Bush's plan to dispatch National Guard troops to the Mexican border was not greeted well by the immigrant coalition, which plans a day of civil action Wednesday, with demonstrations at the White House and on Capitol Hill, and the launch of a nationwide voter registration campaign at churches and nonprofit organizations that hopes to sign up a million new voters among legal residents....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/14/AR2006051400745.html?sub=AR

[SpiralHawk]

1. "I am a divider, not a uniter." - George AWOL Bush

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